Creamy Sundried Tomato, Artichoke and Baby Spinach Penne

Back in the meat-eating days of old I made a chicken, sundried tomato and artichoke pasta sauce loaded with full-fat cream. The parts I loved about the dish were the sundried tomatoes and artichokes and it’s about time to recreate a fully-creamy pasta dish that’s vegan too.

Even though my original creation never used baby spinach, I am on a green-in-everything kick lately.

Also, in all honesty you can use whatever pasta you prefer. I used penne because I like when the tubes fill up with the creamy sauce.

Thanks Deb! I hope you give this recipe a try soon. Actually the more I look at this recipe the more I feel like going and making it again right this second … at 10 pm! It ended up being such a good recipe to satisfy any creamy pasta craving. You’ll have to tell me how it turns out for you.

I buy Rizopia brand rice pasta. It’s brown rice pasta and it has a great flavor and texture. I have also tried Tinkyada and have had good results. I buy the Rizopia simply because it’s a bit more affordable. Is it just the taste you weren’t keen on, or was it the texture too? It took me a while to perfect the way I cook the pasta in order to make sure it’s not soggy or gross. I linked to the ‘handy instructions’ in this recipe in case you missed that and wanted to check out my ‘Coles Notes’ on cooking GF pasta. 🙂

I have tried corn pasta once and it wasn’t my favorite. Nothing really wrong with it … just wasn’t my cup of tea. I have heard there’s quinoa pasta out there but haven’t tried that yet. Have you? Curious to hear what it’s like.

Thank You, thank you, thank you for having this blog! My family consists of one mostly vegetarian husband who still eats meat occasionally, 1 vegetarian teenager (both of whom eat raw dairy cheese, drink raw goats milk, and eat the occasional egg or fish) and 1 vegan, being me- and all of us gluten free. I am so excited to try out some of the recipes you have posted, they look fabulous, and this one I think will please all 3 of the various eating styles in our house. One thing we all miss is creamy pasta, so I think this will be a definite hit!
Thank you so much!

You are welcome! I’m so glad you found my site too. We know all about what it’s like to have different dietary needs in one household too. I’m sure you’ll find all kinds of recipes to make work with your lifestyles. This recipe is my absolute favorite right now. I could eat it once a week, easily. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

I’ve recently become gluten-free although I’ve been vegan for the past couple of years. I plan to make several more of your recipes (I made the mini meat-loafs yesterday but I used a muffin tin and they were equally yummy).

Yay! I am thrilled you liked this recipe. Actually I made this for us this week too. Mmmm. It doesn’t feel like you’re missing out on gluten when you can eat tasty stuff like this, right? Thanks for stopping by and sharing how it turned out with me. (Also, glad you liked the mini meat loaves too.)

So, I am finishing my bowl of this incredible dish, and thinking to myself “Megan should have a show on Food Network!”. You know, get these great healthy recipes out to the masses and all. This coming from a total foodie- I would so watch.

Megan, this recipe is awesome. Picky semi-vegetarian husband is loving it. Vegetarian teenager wouldn’t stop sneaking in the kitchen to eat the sauce by the spoonful, and as for me- I couldn’t be happier!! Big hit around here. I think the simple fact that we can eat vegetarian/vegan and gluten free and have some really amazing food that doesn’t taste like we are giving something up is the best part.

Between your recipes and the stuff I have been making myself as well, I think my dear husband might just give up meat altogether! Yay!

Oh, and the pizza buns- yeah…the 2 guys had those finished within 2 days and are already asking for more.

Thanks once again for sharing your talent and time with all the rest of us!

You are too sweet Grae! You know, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought of long-range plans involving me being famous on TV. Hehehe. So, yeah, if you know of anyone over at Food Network who can get me an ‘in’, just let me know. 😉

In all seriousness though, I love when I hear that a recipe can make people truly happy and satisfy a very diverse family. Also, making food tasty enough that someone doesn’t even ‘miss the meat’ makes me giddy!

So, of course I had to go looking on Food Network’s site- just for fun, and while I don’t know anyone over there, I did come across this little “blurb”-

“Calling All Cooks

If you’re a home cook with a fabulous recipe and a great story to go along with it, let us know. Have you won a local contest with your recipe? Does everyone at work rave about your recipe? Has your recipe been published locally? Send us your story, a description of the recipe and a picture of you to FNDish@foodnetwork.com for a chance to be featured in an upcoming Food Network show.”

I mean really, what could it hurt to just send in one (or 4) of your recipes! 🙂

Very good! My daughter has realized her love of sundried tomatoes through this dish. I enjoyed the rice pasta and cashew cream sauce! I’m new to this and it was fun for me to experiment. I’m rekindling my relationship with my kitchen through vegan gluten free cooking. Thank you!!

Hi Megan ~ I’m new to your blog and honesty, I can’t even remember how I was led to you (most likey through another healthy food blogger I follow). I’m SO glad I did find you. Actually I am making this dish tonight (Creamy Sun-dried Tomato, Artichoke and Baby Spinach). I just KNOW its going to be a favorite!!! But just real quick question (and I know I’m taking a huge chance that you’ll even get this pretty quickly so that I can go forward with my dish), but if not, I’ll just wing it. My question is regarding the vegetable boullion cube for the “Savory Cashew Cream”. The veggie boullion cube that I have (Organic Gourmet, low sodium) instructs to only use a half of cube (a half a cube is a serving). Since your recipe calls for one full cube, should I just ignore the directions on the box? Or no? I just want to make sure I don’t ruin my dish …since this is my first time making it, I’m sort of clueless. 😮 I thank you in advance. Dana

Hey Dana, Hope I replied soon enough before you make the recipe. If half of a cube is a serving, use that. You can always add the other half if you don’t think there’s enough flavor there. It’s the main source of saltiness in the entire recipe (aside from any in the marinated artichokes and sundried tomatoes), if that helps you figure it out too. 🙂 Hope you enjoy it!

Oh, that’s perfect. And how funny, I just left you a message via your “contact” page. I was disparate (lol). But yes, what you suggest sounds right and, exactly, then I can taste it. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And it was actually perfect timing. My cashews just finished soaking. 🙂 Again, many thanks and have a wooonderful evening. Dana

For anyone who hasn’t yet made this dish and is wondering about the final outcome, this dish turned out absolutely deeelicious! Wow! Who knew you could make such a concoction of creaminess delight withOUT the fat laden “real” cream. Well, I certainly had no idea. Awesome, just awesome! I pretty much made it exactly as written with the exception of increasing the amount of onion and garlic (sautéing the onion a bit longer and adding the garlic about a minute before adding the artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes). Faanntaaastic!

I also found that sprinkling a little fresh lemon juice onto the finished dish, once it’s in the individual bowls, enhances the dish even more. It truly adds an additional yumminess! OMG. This will for sure be a dish we continue to make over and over again! Many thanks Megan, for sharing such a winner! 🙂

I am new to gluten free/vegan cooking and was skeptical about the sauce but it was great! Surprisingly creamy. Garlic allergies in the house so had to do without but it still had good flavor. I added nutritional yeast to the cashew sauce and used fresh parsley instead, also garnished with a lemon slice and more parsley. Yum!!

This dish was absolutely wonderful and so easy to make! I have a friend that recently switched to vegan and I was trying to find recipes that would satisfy a vegan/gluten free meal and I stumbled across your site. Looking through all the different recipes made me anxious to start cooking right when I got home from work. This dish went over very well with all 4 at the dinner table of which 2 of them very much love meat to be in each meal. The big consensus of the group was to add portobella mushrooms as another veggie.
It was a quick thing to whip up and I also made your recipe for the red velvet (sans the red food coloring) cup cakes with vegan cream cheese frosting in the time I let the cashews soak. Thank you so much for all of these recipes and I plan on trying out many more!

This was so delicious!!! It is hands down now one of my favourite recipes. It’s also soooo easy to make! Even my husband who is not a vegetarian and has an aversion to most dishes that are labelled “vegetariain” gobbled this down and had no complaints. Thanks for the recipe…keep them coming!

Seriously, guys, this is so good. I’m not some life-long vegan who has become accustomed to the way fake dairy tastes. I am a cheesy creamy dairy LOVER, and ever since I started my dairy/gluten/egg/soy/corn/peanut/sugar free diet, I have been craving some major creamy goodness.

This recipe answered my prayers.

I’m not vegan, so if any of you are the same as me and can’t eat soy (which is in bouillon usually), here is what I did: instead of bouillon, I replaced the 1 1/2 cup of fresh water with broth (I used chicken but I dont think it matters if its veggie or not), and added a little nutritional yeast to add some savory yumminess! It worked out perfectly. I’m enjoying it even as I type this!

This dish is amazing! I had to go dairy & egg free a couple years ago and was just recently told I needed to go gluten-free as well. I feel like I’ve been hungry for days as I try to figure out what I can actually eat. After making this tonight, I finally feel full because I ate so much! Thank you, thank you for this recipe…can’t wait to make this for friends & family and to try more of your recipes!

Thanks for the comment Jodi. I remember when we went gluten-free and vegan … yes quite the adjustment for sure. I’m thrilled you were able to satisfy your hunger and appetite with this recipe and hope you find many more here! Cheers!

Amazing! Tried this out last week for a pair of vegan/gluten-free friends and it was amazing! Used Quinoa penne pasta and honestly- one of the best meals we ever made. Thank you for the great recipe!!!

Again, a huge success! This satisfies my husband’s love of Alfredo sauce while satisfying my love of plant-based eating. I did put bacon bits on his. Oh, and I did use raw sunflower seeds because I seemed to have run out of cashews and it worked just fine.

Though I haven’t tried it myself yet I have heard that raw unsalted sunflower seeds could work to make a lovely vegan non-dairy cream similar to cashew cream. I’ve got to get in the kitchen and try it out myself to be sure, but worth mentioning for you to give a try in the meantime! If you substitute raw unsalted sunflower seeds for the cashews, I’d love to hear how it turned out!